Display of Placards on Trailers

This is in response to your letter of June 21, 1999, requesting clarification of the placarding requirements under the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). Specifically you provide a scenario where the trailer of a tractor trailer combination is shaped into a point in the front. You ask whether the trailer may have the front placard displayed at a 45' angle.

The answer is yes. As provided by § 172.516(a) each placard on a motor vehicle must be readily visible from the direction it faces except from the direction of another motor vehicle to the it is coupled. Therefore a placard displayed on the front of the trailer of a transport vehicle is not required to be "readily visible" as long as it remains attached to another motor vehicle.